Is Backpacking Just About Travelling The World?

In all our travels around the world and our quest to discover new countries and all the amazing sights, sounds and experiences we are privileged with along the way, how much of our own country do we leave unseen and undiscovered?

My own country of England and the United Kingdom for example has had a magnificent run of world class cultural and sporting events over the last 18 months, and I have been lucky to be able to see and experience some of it. With the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, the Royal wedding and the Diamond Jubilee just for starters, England has been a non stop celebration over 2012 and 2013, and the Visit Britain campaign has been in full swing, promoting our rich natural history and heritage.

This in part has led to a huge rise in people choosing to stay at home for their holidays instead. That is if the statistics from the travel companies are to be believed of course. I don’t mean that annoyingly persistent part of the new travel lexicon, – the staycation – that some braniac at an advertising firm thought of, I mean actually having a real holiday, a series of days out or a real weekend or week or so away in your own country.

Economically this makes sense. The recession has hit everyone hard and not everyone can afford to take the time or has the immediate funds to go on extended backpacking trips around the world at the moment. This isn’t helped by the constantly mind boggling flight prices pushed up by rising fuel costs and ridiculously punitive taxes. When you have little money to spare, taking advantage of the local tourist attractions instead of taking a short holiday or snap year in another country seems increasingly attractive. This surge in people travelling in their own country has meant sharp falls in profits for high street travel agents and airlines, and this trend sees no sign of abating any time soon either.

Of course it isn’t as easy as that in Western society. Britain is still one of the most expensive countries in the world, with extremely high accommodation, transport and general costs. It has been a long held truth in the UK that it is actually often considerably cheaper to fly abroad than it is to have a day out! A recent day trip to a local zoo cost close to £100 GBP with transport, admission fees, food and everything else! I could have a week in Thailand for that! Minus the cost of getting there of course. The same is true for any Western developed country, Europe, the USA, Australia, wherever you are from it is hard to deny that we live in expensive countries. That is one of the reasons backpacking to places like South East Asia, Africa or South and Central America has been so attractive to many of us for a long time.

But by travelling for short weekends or weeks away in your own country – especially in an area relatively local to you – or by having a string of days out near our own home and taking advantage of free or cheap attractions such as museums or world heritage sites, you can save a lot of money too, especially when you consider you haven’t forked out for flights, insurance and everything else associated with backpacking. This is a really good option if you can’t afford the whole lump sum payout of getting to your backpacking destination or you want to satiate your travel desire slightly whilst you are saving up.

But it isn’t all about money either, it is about enjoying the country you live in as a backpacking destination as much as the places you visit on your wild and varied travels. How many times have we all arrived in a place, usually a stunning tropical beach or a nice, laid back town and though ‘it would be really nice to stay and live here’? If you’re anything like me it will be a lot, but guess what? People have probably thought that about your own country too, and guess what? You already live there!

England has some amazing places to see and visit that are often overlooked by people who live here, after all so many tourists come here every year to see the sights that are essentially just a short bus or train ride away for us. The same is true for whatever country you happen to live in. Australia, America, Europe, how many of your local or semi local attractions have you seen or taken advantage of as you dream of flying off to somewhere exotic? As someone who is very proud of the fact I have travelled to so many amazing countries, I am almost slightly embarrassed to admit there are still a few significant places in my own country I have yet to see.

There are so many wonderful and amazing attractions and experiences within easy reach, it is so easy to overlook them as you dream of those exotic far flung destinations. Of course backpacking the world will always have its obvious attractions and benefits, and of course I will never stop my quest to discover new locations and different cultures, but it is also nice to take a little time out once in a while to explore my own back yard too.

A recent long weekend off and the unusually brilliant weather (for England) has been the ideal opportunity for me to do just that. An unexpected chance to take in a few sights I have never seen before and even rediscover a few attractions I have not seen in a long time.

“It was THIS big! Honest!”

So if you have the urge to go travelling or backpacking, but don’t quite have the time or the money to do so at the moment, then exploring the sights and attractions of your local area may be just the answer you are looking for. Grab a guide book for your own country and look at the top 10 or 20 things to see and do, how many of them have you actually seen and done? What’s stopping you? So if your boss isn’t letting you take a month off to explore an exotic country, negotiate a few long weekends or a week off instead, get a train or a cheap coach ticket to a town or city close to you that you have never visited before and book yourself into a cheap place to stay, see the glorious United Kingdom through a tourists eyes.

It is much easier for you to jump in a car or get a train than it is for a tourist to fly half the way around the world. So if they can see it, why can’t you?

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Michael Huxley is a published author, freelance travel writer and founder of Bemused Backpacker. He is also a charge nurse by vocation with an interest in emergency nursing and travel medicine, but his real passion is travel. Since finding his wanderlust a decade ago in South East Asia, he has bounced from one end of the planet to another and has no intention of slowing down.

7 comments on “Is Backpacking Just About Travelling The World?”

Definitely agree that there is so much to see and do here in England, but whenever I think of a holiday I automatically think of somewhere abroad. The prices in England tend to put a lot of people off I think.

That is definitely a factor in the UK, I have had many occasions where a train ticket to London was as expensive as a flight to Europe or even Asia in some cases. The curse of living in a ridiculously expensive country I suppose.

AWESOME post and you are so right about having amazing attractions/experiences close to home, yet not taking advantage of them. I would ask myself “why do people come from all around the world to visit Chicago?” That was until I spent some time exploring my own backyard! Now I know!

I totally agree. It’s so easy to miss all of the amazing things to see/do right in your own city. Especially when you always have your sights set on destinations such as the UK. But I also recently spent some time exploring my own backyard (Chicago) and now I know what all the fuss is about!

Completely agree! Recently done a couple of trips to Norfolk, Malvern etc & they are really beautiful areas but like you & others have said, if I’m looking for anything more than a wknd break, a UK staycation inevitably ends up costing more!

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